eroshiyda:

lefthanded-sans:

As
someone with a degree in philosophy, I have always found it interesting that
individuals call Sans “nihilistic.” I can see where the idea comes from,
and why it’s so prevalent. Sans’ Lost Soul dialogue speaks of giving up, which
many have interpreted to be a sign of depression. His dialogue during the
Genocide Route fight also becomes grim. Then, Sans does almost nothing as a
judge, allowing the human to pass through to meet ASGORE, regardless of whether
the child has no dust on their hands, or whether they have murdered dozens. It
seems like Sans does not care, does nothing about the moral standpoint of the
child, and maybe has given up on having something being done. Altogether, then,
doesn’t it look like Sans is nihilistic?

Personally,
I don’t believe so. I feel there is a lot of proof throughout the game which
contradicts an idea Sans would be nihilistic.

Defining
Nihilism

The
definition of nihilism is a little scattered and jumbled because of how it has
been discussed in the past. There are a lot of connotations that have become
incorporated into the idea of nihilism. Boiling it down to its center, nihilism
is the philosophical position that life is pointless.

But
philosophical and vernacular discussion about nihilism often includes more than
just meaninglessness of life. There often are moral beliefs and emotional depression
tied into this concept of nihilism.

As
far as morality is concerned, there are a number of arguments that claim universal
morality would be considered a necessary condition for meaningfulness to exist
in life. In essence: without morality, life is meaningless. An actual,
existent, universal morality would be needed for life to be meaningful. Therefore,
morality gets tied into the concept of nihilism. The specific term “moral
nihilism” is the belief that no morals exist, and oftentimes, people
use “nihilism” to refer to moral nihilism.

On top of that, sometimes,
with all this talk about meaninglessness, you get a depressive element. A
nihilistic person is depressed, it’s often considered or assumed, since they
find life meaningless.

Regardless of how we look at nihilism, though, I don’t think
it can apply to Sans. If we talk about Sans from a moral nihilistic
perspective, he fails that test because he shows that he has moral beliefs. If
we talk about Sans as a simple nihilist who simply finds life meaningless and
may or may not be depressed, I would also disagree. Sans is someone who
suggests he has given up, but that does not entail he is someone who believes
life is meaningless. Giving up is not the same as believing life is pointless,
and Sans provides no indication he believes in the latter.

Sans and Moral Nihilism

The crux of many people
talking about Sans being (morally) nihilistic comes from, at least as I’ve seen
it, the fact that Sans doesn’t take action regardless of what Frisk chooses to
do. Sans might be the judge, but he doesn’t seem to care deeply about how bad
of a person Frisk has been… he lets the human through without any consequence
to their bad action. This can suggest that either Sans does not have many moral
values, or that he’s so depressed he doesn’t really care about life anymore –
life is meaningless.

However, throughout the
game, Sans demonstrates he has an internal moral framework which he believes in
and abides by, in moments like these:

• He calls out Frisk if they say Papyrus
  is “uncool.” Sarcasm is an inappropriate response here for Sans. Why?
  Because he cares about his brother, yes. But he also makes a moral judgment
  here: the human was wrong to say something like that about his brother.
• Sans only allows Frisk to enter his room
  if they are a complete pacifist. Sans will make different judging comments to
  the human based upon their LV value, but he provide them the secret code
  phrases if their hands are free of dust. Sans makes a judgment about whether or
  not the human can be allowed in his room, and the only time in which this is allowed
  is when Frisk is morally pure. Sans is making a moral judgment call here.
• Sans will make a bunch of remarks about
  how bad the human has been in his judgment if they have a LV of 2 or higher. He
  might occasionally sound flippant, but he is making moral claims and he is
  serious about them. You can tell that especially when the human is over LV 9,
  in which he says, “those are both still failing grades. besides. chances
  are… i’ve already tried to steer you in the right direction. […] what can i
  say that will change the mind of a being like you?” The fact Sans claims to try
  to steer the human in the right direction indicates that Sans has a moral
  framework and he’s wanted to try to guide the human into following it.
  When the human is over LV 14, Sans’ moral ideas shine even more clearly: “you’re
  a pretty bad person. you wander around, looking for people… killing them to
  take their money. that’s just plain messed up. […] but maybe you’d be
  better… at not killing anyone? crazy idea, huh? let me know how that one
  goes.” Sans is attempting to tell the human not to kill people because they are
  morally wrong.
• If the human has killed Papyrus, Sans will
  ask, “isn’t it your responsibility to do the right thing?” Sans will then
  target them for killing his brother. He is bitterly pointing out the human’s
  blame. He’s pointing out their sins. He wouldn’t be talking about the human
  having responsibility to do the right thing if he didn’t believe in
  right versus wrong, directly contradicting what moral nihilism is.
• This isn’t the only time Sans will bite at
  you for killing his brother. A lot of the neutral ending phone calls will
  result in Sans telling you that you’re not welcome or that you should go to hell
  because of what you’ve done. In the No Mercy Neutral ending, he will make it
  clear he doesn’t even hope you enjoyed killing all those people… he is not pleased with you and what you have done.
• In the No Mercy Neutral ending, Sans’
  words suggest he feels guilty, bemoaning, “this is what happens when people
  like me take it easy.” Sans considers himself responsible for his own actions,
  too, suggesting he is a moral agent too who should have (a moral
  judgment) taken action here.
• “You feel your sins crawling on your back”
  also says something huge about the moral aspect of Sans’ character.

Now some people might
point out that Sans might make a lot of moral comments, but where are his moral
actions? Sans still watches the human enter Asgore’s throne room,
even if the child is a proven murderer.

I personally do not
believe Sans sits around and does nothing, but that is the topic of another
long analysis. In short, I believe that Sans very closely watches the human and
does a lot to try to get the human to make a pacifistic run. But, at the
same time, Sans also knows the limitations to his abilities, and he does not
stop the human when it is pointless to stop them. The human has to
confront Asgore and reach a neutral ending in order to reset and redo their
actions (assuming they’ve saved somewhere along the journey). If Sans knows
that, then he has to let the kid pass, even if it means letting a murderer
pass. Otherwise, there’s no way to reset and get to a point that the human
might be able to retrace their steps and become a pacifist. Sans isn’t letting
morality float right on by him without caring. He’s choosing not to act because
there’s no point in acting… he can’t change things there and he knows it, so he
lets the human by. It has nothing to do with him discarding aspects of morality…
Sans has a moral code.

Even if people want to
say that Sans doesn’t act on his morals here, that still cannot turn into a
claim that Sans believes in no morals.  That
he doesn’t act on his morals doesn’t mean he lacks morals. Sans proves he has
moral beliefs, a sense of duty, and, in cases where he has failed, a guilty
conscience.  This means that Sans is not
morally nihilistic.

Sans and the
Meaningfulness of Life

The more general and foundational sense of nihilism is the belief that
life is meaningless. While the idea is often connected to depression, nihilism and
depression are not the same thing. Personally, I have seen some very good
arguments about how Sans might be depressed. However, I don’t think I have seen
any good evidence for Sans believing life is meaningless.

Even when Sans is a Lost Soul, he does not make a
suggestion that life is pointless. What
he says is, “just give up. i did.” Since Lost Souls speak about the biggest
emotional challenge they are undergoing, this suggests that Sans’ biggest
challenge is caring. While someone might interpret this as
him implying he has given up on life and found the efforts meaningless, this
also is not necessarily the case. People who feel down can still believe
life is meaningful; one can even feel despaired because they feel they cannot attain
the purpose they desire in life. There could be many number of reasons why Sans
speaks despondently as a Lost Soul, and the only clue we get is, “you’ll never
see ’em again.” The giving up might be
related to him not being able to see “them” – whoever them is. That giving up then is not related to the meaningfulness of life. Frankly, Sans could give up on just about anything and still find life meaningful, so this means the Lost Soul dialogue cannot be taken for proof Sans is nihilistic. Maybe depressed, but not nihilistic.

In truth, never once does Sans make a comment about
life being pointless, the game being pointless, or him giving up on life.

What about his comments in the Genocide Route, though?
He says:

you
can’t understand how this feels. knowing that one day, without any warning… it’s
all going to be reset. look. i gave up trying to go back a long time ago. and
getting to the surface doesn’t really appeal anymore, either. cause even if we
do… we’ll just end up right back here, without any memory of it, right? to be
blunt… it makes it kind of hard to give it my all. …or is that just a poor
excuse for being lazy…? hell if i know. all i know is… seeing what comes next… i
can’t afford not to care anymore.

This is probably the closest Sans sounds to being
nihilistic, and where the best arguments for him being nihilistic could be
made. Here, Sans talks about how he has given up trying to go back and
how getting to the surface seems to be unappealing, too, suggesting that
emotionally he cannot find a drive to get anywhere. That could almost seem to suggest a lack of purpose or meaningfulness in life. He also outright says he has not cared and that he struggles to give it his all because it won’t come to any good, anyway. I can see how this could be interpreted as a form of depressive nihilism.

So if people want to take this moment from Sans and use it as an interpretation to say he does not believe life is meaningful, I can understand it. I would, however, cautiously say that there are other just-as-possible alternative interpretations that might meld better with how Sans acts in the rest of the game. It is true that Sans is baring his SOUL and speaking candidly about how he feels right now, but it might not be the best point in time to read into Sans’ character. Here, he is experiencing an extreme trial. It’s not the best point to make a judge into his beliefs and personality because this is no everyday deal, and this Genocide battle will alter and affect him. People are not their normal selves in such an extreme state, and Sans isn’t going to be reflecting that which he normally feels now.

What we know from this dialogue is that Sans has given up on “going back.” Not life – “going back.” Sans recognizes a limitation to what he can and cannot do, recognizing some things are outside his control. The surface doesn’t appeal – not because it isn’t a worthy goal – but because Sans feels like he’s just going to end back down in this hellish battle against a murderer without any memory of the old, good times. Sans is talking about what he doesn’t have control over in life, not that life is worthless. While that idea of not having control can be a bit depressing, it’s not related to the idea that life is meaningless. Nothing about this dialogue, in truth, talks about life being meaningless… just that certain actions are meaningless because they do not come to anything. It is meaningless for Sans to do something that gets him nowhere. He’s not saying life is meaningless.

The actions Sans take throughout the game suggest he does not consider life meaningless. Sans does seem to work hard around the human and track them closely for a purpose. Sans does take emotional investment and care into his friends. Sans does choose to spend timeline after timeline after timeline confronting a murderer – he obviously considers keeping this universe around important – suggesting he does find some value in his life, his experiences, the people around him, and the very existence of the world. If the world were not so important, and he knew he was going to die sometime anyway, then why keep on fighting Frisk in every timeline?

It is hard to defend Sans as being nihilistic when he stands up so resolutely against the human in the Genocide Route battle. Sans is willing to fight over and over and over and over again – even if this means he loses one time – for the desperate hope the human won’t destroy the underground. So that life isn’t destroyed. Sans won’t lay a finger on the human if they kill his brother. The one and only time Sans fights is to protect the underground from being destroyed… showing that he is placing existence – the potential for life – the potential to keep going – as something of incredible value. He’s finding this idea of existence so meaningful he’ll engage in the fight when nothing else has provoked him before. That’s definitely not finding life meaningless. When Sans decides to fight, it’s for what he considers most important: and that is keeping the world in existence. So that some people… can… live.

The more I look into Sans’ actions in any timeline – pacifist, neutral, genocide – the more I see someone with values. The more I see evidence of someone who does action with purpose and meaningfulness. As I see it, it is far more consistent to interpret Sans as someone who believes life is meaningful.

And, even if one does not make that interpretation, there still is a complete lack of evidence for Sans believing life is meaningless. Even his Genocide Route dialogue is not talking about life’s meaningless, but about certain actions being meaningless. In the absence of a character talking about life being meaningless, one cannot conclude he is nihilistic.

Sans may or may not be depressed. I’ve seen good arguments for that. I, personally, though, don’t think that Sans is nihilistic, either in a general nihilistic sense, or moral.

Yes, exactly, thank you. People can have depression and not necessarily be nihilistic.